dan taylor throws

ilivetrack.com

2009-05-14T10:13:00.003-06:00

My new website is ilivetrack.com, I have refocused all my energy towards it so please visit www.ilivetrack.com.

ilivetrack.com is a place for all track and field athletes to have a voice, regardless of age or talent level. The only stories here are yours. Tell everyone how your run went today, tell them how much you lifted today, and tell them you jumped a PR today. Tell everyone that you live track at ilivetrack.com.

The Trials

2008-06-20T07:35:00.003-06:00

One Week. There is only one week till the qualifying round at The Trials. For those of you who didn't know the competition format at the trials is a little different. At The Trials there is a qualifying round followed the next day by the trail and finals rounds. On Friday next week they take the whole field of shot putters 24-30 guys, and cut it to 12 by giving everyone 3 puts and taking the top 12. There is also an auto mark in the qualifying round where if you throw x distance, say 20.50m, then your automatically into Saturdays trials round and you can stop throwing, so really you could only take 1 throw on Friday to make it back on Saturday. Then on Saturday it's a brand new competition, none of the marks from Friday's competition count, with the basic meet format. You get 3 throws to make the top 9 and then the top 9 get and additional 3 throws. Top 3 make The Games. There are only few meets that have this format, The Olympics, The Trials, World Championships, and The NCAA Championships.

Pre, Flooding, and Trials

2008-06-12T07:20:00.003-06:00

This has been a quick week. Pre was on Sunday. Which I did o.k. 20.68, not bad but I had two good fouls at least one of which was over 21m and closer to 21.20m. They weren't bad fouls, In my opinion they weren't even fouls at all. I got called for touching the top of the ring out of the back, which is cheap, it's a lame call and they only way to tell is if someone is lying on the ground flat and looking at th ring, which there never is. Regardless the meet was still good the new Hayward Field looks awesome it's a great setup the rings are great, now if it was just closer to a major airport and the were more hotels in Eugene It'd be perfect. But you can't have it all.
I'm sure a lot of you have seen this picture or the video that goes with it, it's form this past week in Wisconsin when with all the rain caused a damn to burst and washed away these lake homes. Well it just happens that this house is soon to be family of mine. This home belongs to my Fiancee's Aunt and Uncle , Liz and Tim Fromm and there three daughters so it's been kinda weird just watching their home float away. Luckily they all are o.k. but they are with out a home or anything else. So Steph and I are going to go visit them this weekend up in Chicago, they are staying with Family there. Today being Thursday June 12th if is officially 2 weeks till The Olympic Trials begin, and it's going to be a fast wait, time has flown by already and now it's just two weeks to go. I know I'll be ready and bring myself to the meet with everything I have, I've but a lot of eggs in this basket. So we will see the Shot Put is one of the strongest events in the US and things might get crazy, but historically and John Hendershot from Track and Field News will back me up on this, It has never taken more than 21m to make the US Olympic team. Never. Now you might say,"Well Dan what about the 2000 Olympic Trials were John Godina got 4th with 21.09m? What about that Dan." Well I would have to reply, "Well track nerd, In 2000 before The Games C.J. Hunter, who got second at the trials with 21.87m, got popped and didn't go, essentially moving everyone up a place in the end, and therefore technically John was 3rd with 21.09m. Now get lost and stop asking stupidly narrow topic questions." Thats how I imagine that conversation would go.

New York Grand Prix to Pre

2008-06-04T07:15:00.004-06:00

Well it's taken me to about today to want to write a new entry in this thing so... This past weekend was the New York Grand Prix, and it was almost the worst case scenario (fouling out) for a competition. I only marked one throw out of the 6, my last and it was only 18.90, almost 2.o.m less than my last meet. I knew it wasn't going to be good during warm-ups. I felt sluggish and uncoordinated during and it unfortunitly transfered to the competition. I was all over the place, I just couldn't coordinate my body to what my head was telling it what to do, I was a mess.
O well you got to put it behind you. So Pre is this week, which is always a great meet, and we get to compete on their new track. It will also be nice to compete at the Olympic Trials venue before the trials start in 3 weeks. So hopefully I'll regain my mind and be able to throw properly there. There was an article this week in the Statesman Journal about the shot put at Prefontaine but I wasn't mentioned, makes sense though I haven't thrown far yet.
Here is a link to Breaux Greer as "Hurricane" on American Gladiators, which was kinda my idea in the first place, not him being a gladiator, but I want to be a competitor and beat up on the Gladiators. Those guys might look big on T.V. but I know I would tower over them, I think there scared for some real competition, thats why they pick lawyers and accounts, guys who can't even bench over there body weight. Granted I'd get tired because I have no cardiovascular endurance, but I don't think that factors into many of the games, and besides I could train for that anyways. Good luck Breaux have fun beating up regular people.

Steven Spielburg disapoints me

2008-05-28T06:38:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was my first day throwing since Adidas in Carson, and it was o.k. My groin/hamstring felt a little sore but nothing intolerable. The only thing that sucked was that I didn't really press my practice as hard as I normally would of because I was babying my leg. There are no new pains this morning so I guess thats a good sign. Today I'm going to throw again if it doesn't rain, which it has been for the last 3 days, and hopefully I'll be able to tie into a few throws and reassure myself that my leg will be fine.
To make things worse last night I went and saw Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Worst Movie Ever. Lucasarts and Steven Spielburg are just getting lazy. Their moves have been some of the largest disappointments ever. They should just learn to leave well enough alone and never had made prequels to Star Wars(not that Spielburg was involved,but I'm still going to blame him by association) or this awe full 4th Indiana Jones movie. Sure they made a lot of money, like Uncle Scrooge in Ducktales, I imagine that they both have large vaults of gold coins that they swim around in. Regardless of this they ruined both trilogies.South Park made fun of this a few years ago with their "Free Hat" episode, when Lucas and Spielburg were "Digitally Enhancing" everything. I'm not going to go into detail in case there are people who still want to go see this disaster, but in my advise wait for the DVD if you must see it, and avoid it all together if you want to still want to think of Indiana Jones as iconic.

On a happier note Congratulations to Christian and Teri Cantwell, Yesterday was the birth of their son Jackson Daniels Cantwell
11lbs. 2oz. and 23 in. long. Congrats guys.

Memorial Day Weekend in So. Ill.

2008-05-24T09:33:00.004-06:00

So this week has been pretty laid back. After I got home from the Adidas Classic on Monday I was pretty tired, I had to get up at 4 a.m. to get on my flight out of Lax back to Stl and then drive the two hours back home, and then mow the yard(First time all year, I can be so lazy some times). Anyways I tweaked my groin/medial hamstring AGAIN at Adidas, the second time in two years, so I haven't throw this week. Which sucks because I have just recently been getting into a good flow in practice and my move was getting respectable,whatever.

So what have I been doing this week? Nothing, playing on my computer, I recently "got" Adobe Illustrator and I've just been designing random things on there ex. logos, t-shirts, web banners, and other junk. But more importantly I've been spending a lot of time with my fiancee Stephanie this week, (that's right we're engaged it happened on April 20th) which is nice because with me traveling and her working full time we don't get as much time together as we used to. So, on Wednesday night we played in a softball game at Rent One Park which is the home of The Southern Illinois Miners, the local miner league baseball team, with people from her work. It was a good time our team won with a huge rally in the last inning. I only batted once and I just tapped it down the third base line, a real display of my hitting prowess, Steph showed me up by actually making it on base though. Then last night we were at HerrinFesta Italiana , a local Italian Festival. She had to work in a tent for her company handing out prizes, so I went along and helped, it was pretty boring but the time went by fast, the only bad parts were the annoying teenagers who kept want more stuff, and the tent across form us had Guitar Hero and the whole night, it was just one guy playing Barracuda by Heart the whole time, I wanted to smash his "Guitar".

Today should be fun though, Stephanie is part of a local group Friends of Murphysboro and today and tomorrow is their big 1st Annual Wine and Arts Festival. So were going to be there all afternoon in charge of handing out more prizes and drinking, so it should be fun.

Good Luck Ron!

2008-05-13T13:08:00.002-06:00

I realize it's been quite some time now since I posted on this site, but I promise you that I will be posting much more from now on...Once a week...almost as if I'm required to for some reason...anyways. So today's news is The Retirement of Ron Bramlett. I have known Ron for few years and he's a great guy and I wish him all the luck with his new career. This should be a reminder to all athletes in track and field that your days in the sport are few, and you should make the best of them. Don't ever think there will be another meet because in some cases there isn't. Just realize how good we have it and stop complaining, a lesson I should listen to myself.

Valencia to Today

2008-02-13T10:30:00.004-06:00

I learned something important this past weekend, don't try to do two meets back to back, in different countries, and expect to do good. I tried it, it doesn't work. Saturday I was dead tired and my legs were worthless.
I had to leave the hotel in Düsseldorf at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning to go to Valencia that afternoon. I flew from Germany to Mallorca and then on to Valencia, I didn't get into my hotel room in Spain till 11:30 a.m. or 6 1/2 hours after I left Germany. Friday night I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep, I was tired but just couldn't sleep, so when I got to Spain I crashed out for about 2 hours. After my nap I walked to the store to get some Red Bulls so I could be ready to go. I had to leave for the track at 3:45 p.m. and the threw at 6 p.m. I was only able to put out one decent throw at 19.87m (which I know sucks but whatever).
My travel back was pretty smooth no delays or problems although there was a Tiger Man on my flight. Apparently there was this Guinness Book Of World Records gathering in Spain and this guy was on his way back to the states. The guy looked surreal, he had tattoo stripes all over his face and arms, metal piercing whiskers, fangs , and a cleft lip. Heres a picture I found, this is the actual guy who was on the plane.
This is a short week I already have to leave again tomorrow for Tyson in Arkansas. On Monday I did Box Squats and Hang High Pulls and then Benched on Tuesday, which I had to do in the Rec Center because of the ice storm that came into town Monday night. The whole town and surrounding areas were shut down yesterday it was ridiculous.

In Germany

2008-02-07T11:12:00.000-06:00

Well I made it. After getting rerouted 4 time yesterday I finally made it to Düsseldorf, Germany. Stupid snow and Chicago, you would think by now they would know it's going to snow during the winter and go buy a plow, or at least a shovel.
So now I'm just sitting here in my crappy little hotel room in Germany being bored, well it's not really crappy it's just small. It's about as big a me, there's two tiny twin beds and a desk, oh and a window, other than that it's pretty uncredible. I didn't get a chance to sleep much on my longest flight only about 2.5-3 hours tops. It was a pretty short flight only about 5.5 hours from Newark to Manchester, I had to run through Newark to make the connection, and was the last one on. I'm going to try and stay up till at least 8 or 9 and then crash out till tomorrow.

After Millrose

2008-02-05T10:27:00.000-06:00

Millrose wasn't that bad, it's wasn't great but it was better than Boston. I felt good, but after Coach watched the t.v. coverage, which I haven't seen yet, he said I was over rotating out of the back of the ring. This is because I didn't have enough weight on my left side. It's always hard for me to "feel" that in the ring and it's been one of the hardest things to try and break over the past few years, it just seems like I all ways revert back to it in a meet even if practice was great.

Adam went big though which is awesome. What's crazy to me is when people ask "Whoa! Where did that come from?", First off It's Adam Nelson it's not like some random guy just threw 22 m. This is a guy with a hand full of world medals and a p.r. of 22.51 m. It's not out of the question for him to throw 22 m., especially with a crowd like we had there, Adam feeds off that energy. My prediction is that unless another shot putter goes farther, that was the winning performance for the Indoor Visa Championship Series.

This week has been going pretty much as normal. I got back Saturday afternoon from New York. On our flight back Christian and I sat behind Jenna Fischer (Pam Beasley from "The Office"). We didn't really talk to her though, we spent the first half of the flight debating if it was actually her. We later confirmed it when she started reading a script. So that was pretty cool.
Anyways, Sunday I did my squats and hang clean hi-pulls, they when o.k. Then I watched the Super Bowl, it was a good game, I don't like Eli Manning, I think he's weird but I like his brother, so Congrats Giants. Yesterday I benched in the morning and then threw in the afternoon, I was dead tired by the time I had to throw, but it was a pretty decent practice surprisingly. Tomorrow I'm leaving for Germany, I have a meet in Düsseldorf on Friday night. Then I'm flying to Spain on Saturday morning where I have a meet Saturday afternoon in Valencia, It'll be the first time I've ever done back to back meets in Europe, I hope it doesn't suck.
The picture of Adam and Reese is from right before the meet when the 4 of us Adam, Reese, Christian, and myself, went a got a sandwich.

The Millrose Games and 3 Times in 10 Days

2008-01-31T09:27:00.000-06:00

Well this week has been o.k.. Training has been good, Like I said on Sunday I lifted good, and then I came back on Monday and did my bench workout. I did 5x3 regular flat bench and then 4x3 on 30° incline, and it went very well, so that makes me feels a lot better after last weekend.
The Millrose Games is probably one of the greatest track and field meets I've ever been/competed at. It makes track and field fun, it's one of the few events where the crowed knows whats going on, and cares. It's great how they pack the Garden just for a track meet, if every meet was like Millrose track would be just as popular as any "Professional" sport. Sadly though it's not.
And speaking of "Professional" athletes I wonder how many of them got drug tested by USADA in the past 10 days let alone 3 times. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, I don't mind at all it's just funny how no one realizes how much we (Track and Field Athletes) get tested and how little other "Professional" sports get tested comparatively. Also Coach has been stirring stuff up on The Ring , check it out.

The Boston Let Down

2008-01-27T18:50:00.000-06:00

So what happened this weekend? I don't know, really, I have no idea. It was embarrassing, and for those of you wondering, no I'm not hurt. Honestly I don't know why I threw so bad. Everything felt good, I felt like I was hitting all my positions well, I was throwing straight down the middle of the field, I was even staying in the ring. The only thing that felt off was that it didn't feel like I had any "pop". It felt like maybe my nervous system wasn't recovered out yet, probably from traveling and competing earlier in the week, but still honestly I don't know. But you can't dwell on that kind of performance, I have to just look past it and focus on my upcoming events, mainly The Millrose Games on Friday Night at the Garden.
Today though has been a long day. I got back to St. Louis from Boston around 2:00 p.m. and then had to drive the 2 hours south to my house in Carbondale, Il. Then when I got home around 4:15 I grabbed a quick bite to eat and a throwers best friend A.K.A a Red Bull (Which now comes in a limited edition 1/2 Liter can) and headed off to work out around 4:30 p.m.. Today I did a hard box squat and hang high pulls. I had to lift today because of the quick turnaround this week, Millrose being on Friday Night gives me one less day. Hopefully this week will be better and I can get back on track for Friday in NYC. Again I'm not hurt physically, my pride however did suffer some.

I'm shipping up to Boston

2008-01-24T13:54:00.000-06:00

First off sorry that I haven't posted earlier this week but the Internet has been down at my house since last week, it sucks, so I'm posting from my iPhone. So when I get the Internet back I'll make a better post. So Monday was the USA world meet in Fresno. It was a pretty nice meet, it had a good crowd and was a good place to open up for the year. I only threw about 20 meters (65-9), but I had a foul arond 21 meters so that was good. Reese had a good opener though just over 21 meters. This weekend is Boston indoors, and its gonna be big. Everyone is gonna be there me, Reese, Christian, and Adam. I guarantee there's gonna be some big throws and most likely the leader of the Visa series. Anyways this is taking forever trying to type so I'll post again when I finally get a connection.

Who Should Be The Next CEO of USATF

2008-01-16T15:06:00.000-06:00

In my opinion the new CEO of USATF needs to be someone who has no association or experience with track and field ever. Why? Because this is a business, and needs to be run that way, not that it's wasn't before. That's why I would like to throw two names out that I think can turn this company into a huge money maker. Donald Trump and Vince McMahon. Let's break this down. First "The Donald", why do I think Trump would be a good choice,even though he's a real estate mogul. Because he would either one have The Apprentice: Project USA Track and Field, or two probably sell the company off and rent out the offices, both viable choices.
Now what about the King of Extreme Entertainment, and my personal choices, Vince McMahon. Look at what this guy has done to a pretend sport, imagine if he got to manage a sport that has actual athletes. Granted he failed horribly with the XFL, but there he was competing against a well established sports giant the NFL. In Track there is no other direct competitor it's an open market just waiting for someone to take advantage of it. So as an "Elite Athlete" in USATF, and feeling as I should have some say in what happens in the company that oversees...well in not sure exactly what they oversee...but non the less they're a company that I have to deal with, I would like to officially nominate Vince McMahon for consideration as the next CEO of USATF. Any seconds?

Things that are happening and other stuff

2008-01-14T09:01:00.000-06:00

So there has been a lot of track "news" in the past couple of days, most notably Marion getting six months in jail for lying.

I'm not exactly sure what to think about this, I don't really think it has a lot of significance other than proving that you shouldn't lie to a grand jury. It's like Al Capone geting busted for tax evasion, it's just the tip of a larger crime. The fact is that for years she was able to elude the drug tests, proving that the there are flaws in the current system, and that it's too easy to beat.
There's always going to be an underlying doubt to any performance that's exceptional regardless of it genuineness. That's been the residual long term effect of the "drugs" in Track and Field, disbelief.

In another piece of news that has no real impact on me, Craig Masback has resigned as CEO of USATF. I never really had any problems with Craig, he never affected me directly, but there are a lot of people who really didn't like the guy. That's where one of my favorite track and field gossip web sites comes in LetsRun.com . Here are the links to the Masback and Marion discussion boards, some of the posts are pretty funny.

Marion Message Board
Masback Message Board

So what am I up to today? Not much. I've got a meet a week from today in Fresno (USA Vs. The World) so I'm setting up for that. I'll throw today and lift big tomorrow, and probably throw on Thursday and Friday too. I'm glad to be in season again it's boring just training without any meets.

This Week in Dan Taylor News:The Holidays

2008-01-10T09:32:00.000-06:00

This week is all about getting back into the routines of training and getting ready for the indoor season. We ( Stephanie and I ) just got back this past Sunday from our big holiday break. We spent a week at the center of the universe a.k.a. Ohio, and then spent a week in Siesta Key, Florida, which I don't know what those hurdlers in Miami see in Florida, it was in the 30's at night and it snowed in Daytona. Over-Rated.
Anyways it sucks trying to train in a place that your not used to, first off you have to find a place to lift. Usually it's one of two places, either a crappy little local place with no equipment, or a big corporate gym with about 400 people in it all doing curls in front of a mirror. And regardless of which one I choose I constantly get harassed by people asking ridiculous questions e.g. "How much you bench?" or "Do you play football?". Now the answer to both of these question, I think, are pretty obvious, "More than you", and "No. Because if I did I wouldn't be lifting in this crappy gym, I'd be in my mansion watching someone I paid to lift for me, while I eat a steak". Do I really answer questions like that, no, I wish I had it in me to though. The other big task is trying to find a place to practice. This usually is the easiest part theres always a high school or college near by that has a track and a ring, so thats no so bad.
Getting back home to Carbondale is nice though. It's just been work as usual this week I threw on Monday, lifted Tuesday and Wednesday, and I have today off, which is good. Other than that not much going on I've pretty much figured out my indoor schedule and will be posting it soon.

The Ohio State Buckeys

2007-12-05T10:10:00.000-06:00

This has by far been the craziest year for upsets in College Football, but after the dust settled on the season it turns out that the preseason #12 Buckeyes (now #1) will be playing for the National Championship against the LSU Tigers. I don't think anyone saw this coming, but it works for me. Do I think the Bucks will get stomped again this year like they did last time, no. I think they've got something more to prove this time, they have a big chip on their shoulder from last years game and I think it's gonna be a lot closer than most people think, but I'm bias. Go Bucks.

NEW YORK (AP) — LSU has a ticket to the title game. Everyone else has a pretty good gripe.

The latest chapter in this crazy, unpredictable college football season was written Sunday when LSU won the sport’s version of the lottery, being picked to play Ohio State for the championship and leaving about a half-dozen other candidates with plenty to complain about.

The Tigers (11-2), ranked second in the latest Associated Press poll, will be the first team to play in the BCS title game with two losses.

“It is something a lot of guys never thought we would have the opportunity to have after we lost to Arkansas, but the guys just kept on fighting and controlled the things they could control and now we are going on to play in the championship,” LSU safety Craig Steltz said.

No. 1 Ohio State goes into the game, Jan. 7 at the Superdome in New Orleans, at 11-1.

“We always talk to our guys about the fact you better win all your games,” Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. “We didn’t do that but we still have an opportunity in a crazy football season.

Let's Try This Again

2007-12-04T16:42:00.000-06:00

Well i know it's been a while (7 months), but I think it's time to really dedicate myself to this site more and give it a chance.I'm not really sure why I abandoned it in April, I had fun writing it and a lot of people enjoyed reading it. So now in preparation of a grand relaunching of this site I'd like to know what kinds of things your interested in reading about, training, competitions, life, anything really, let me know.
December is going to be a little lacking in post only because there really isn't a whole lot going on right now. I've just been hitting the weight room pretty hard and trying to get back in a solid rhythm in the ring. This is the start of my second week indoors and the plywood takes some time to get used to. Other than that not much is going on.

Opening Soon

2007-04-24T09:48:00.000-06:00

Well it's been awhile since I've posted anything, but there really hasn't been anything going on lately, just a lot of training. Now though it's time to throw again. This weekend I will be throwing at Drake. Drake is a good meet to open up at, there's always a great crowd and it's always a good competition. It's only been since 2005 that I've gone to Drake Relays, in college we would always go to Penn Relays. After being to both I would say that I like Drake better. Drake has better all around fields, and they have the shot put on the infield instead on outside the stadium and under train tracks, like Penn, and they have open athletes in all the events at drake, not just the relays, like Penn. Penn may have the USA. vs. The World Relay, but that's about it. Not that I don't like Penn it's a fun meet to watch, I just think it's not as strong of a meet as Drake.

Spring Training

2007-03-07T09:57:00.001-06:00

Well this is the second worst time of the year, training wise. It's the time of year when you have to get sore again, granted it's not as bad as when you come back to lifting after then end of the year, but it still sucks. I'm just no good at rep's in the weight room, they kill me, as they do a lot of other people, but still.
Anyways, it looks like the shot put is going to have some more comp this year (like we need anymore guys throwing far) after the
Indoor European Results, a lot of new face in the finals. It's good to see Robert Haggblom throwing far, maybe they'll put the shot put back in Helsinki.
Also anyone going to the Nike Indoor Nationals this weekend? I'll be there as part of the SET Summit. It should be a good time, I hope I have time to check out some of the events.

Down Time

2007-03-01T10:21:00.000-06:00

Now that indoors is over I have a lot of free time. I really don't do much outside of throwing and lifting usually. however this is one of my favorite times of year, the break before outdoors really gets going. I'm thinking about starting to play golf regularly. I don't really know why, I've only played once before in my life, but it would give me something to do. It's better than my current past time, maybe. Currently I spend my free time playing the most addicting PC game ever, World of Warcraft, I know I'm a big computer dork, ha ha, whatever. I don't get into all the role playing stuff, I don't know why the game is fun to me it just is, and not that I have to justify playing it to you guys, anyways if anyone else out there look me up on the Proudmoore (Alliance) server my characters name is Dirtmcgirt. Don't judge me for my nerdyness I still throw too.

Best finish ever

2007-02-25T18:59:00.000-06:00

Well today was the shot put at USA's. It was a OK competition nothing special and no real excitement. It's weird the crowd just sorta sat there quietly and watched. Not to be to harsh though, I did get some cheers from the crowd when I was getting ready to throw, my mom being the loudest. Nobody really got anything going in the ring either. Christian won with his first throw and Reese and I didn't really challenge him. It's fine though, I got third which is my best finish ever at a US Championships so that's something I guess. I was lucky to get it though only throwing 20.32m, Sheldon almost got me. I had some good warm ups ~21m and a couple good sector fouls 21-21.50m, not enough to win but still good. Oh well time to go back to heavy training and get ready for outdoors, it's more important anyways.

Finals
 1 Christian Cantwell           Nike                    21.72m   71-03.25
     21.72m  21.06m  21.09m  21.29m  21.23m  FOUL
 2 Reese Hoffa                  Nyac                    21.21m   69-07.00
     20.91m  20.77m  FOUL  20.83m  21.21m  FOUL
 3 Dan Taylor                   Nike                    20.32m   66-08.00
     FOUL  20.10m  20.32m  FOUL  FOUL  FOUL
 4 Sheldon Battle               unattached              20.24m   66-05.00
     FOUL  19.95m  FOUL  FOUL  20.00m  20.24m
 5 John Godina                  adidas                  19.63m   64-05.00
     19.45m  FOUL  19.58m  19.63m  FOUL  FOUL
 6 Rhuben Williams              Shore Athlet            19.34m   63-05.50
     FOUL  19.34m  18.71m  18.26m  FOUL  19.27m
 7 Vincent Mosca                unattached              19.33m   63-05.00
     19.22m  FOUL  FOUL  FOUL  FOUL  19.33m
 8 Steve Manz                   unattached              19.32m   63-04.75
     FOUL  19.27m  19.32m  FOUL  FOUL  FOUL

USA...USA...Indoors

2007-02-21T11:20:00.000-06:00

Well I guess the big deal this week is USATF Indoor Nationals, but more importantly the Visa Championship Series and $25,000. That's right, $25,000, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about I'll explain, USA Track and Field runs a series of Indoor events called the Visa Championship Series. The Ultimate goal of these competitions is to first win your respective event, then secondly have your performance be the best, based off of the IAAF score tables. So whoever wins their event and scores the highest during the series of meets wins the $25,000. Here are the current standings. I'm leaving for Boston tomorrow, I have some press thing on Friday afternoon, highly doubt they'll ask me anything, my money is on me sitting there quietly maybe drinking some water. Anyways the big event is on Sunday after noon( 4-6 p.m. ET on ESPN 2). Here is a press release from USATF about the men's shot, and also if you go to USATF home page they have started a poll on who's gonna win the shot Sunday, It's always fun to mess with online polls and tell everyone to vote for a specific person, but that would be childish. It's on the bottom right when you load their page.

Update: As of today (2/23) they have taken down the online poll about the shotputters, but last I saw I was winning with 54% of the votes with about 600 total votes...nice.

Birmingham Video

2007-02-19T16:38:00.000-06:00

Here's The BBC coverage of the meet.

Blah in Birmingham

2007-02-19T09:17:00.000-06:00

Well finally I'm back home, stupid weather, me and Cantwell had to sit in the Newark airport for 10 hours before we could get a flight out. Anyways about the meet. First off the NIA is great venue, unfortunately we threw very early in the meet, the second event to start, so the crowd wasn't that into it. Now the biggest issue was the ring ,the ring was awful, some how it was slow and slick a strange combination. My theory is that there was some sort of cleaning residue left on the modo of the track and would get on our shoes and make us slip. I think both Garret and Reese slipped just walking around the ring during warm-ups. Also for me I was physically just tired from flying back over sees, I should of stayed in Europe before the meet instead of coming home, but that's just the way the logistics works out sometimes. So here's the results, also just out the video on Mac Throw. I'll probably post it later.

OFFICIAL RESULTS

1 Reese HOFFA USA 21.12
2 Dan TAYLOR USA 20.83
3 Joachim OLSEN DEN 20.44
4 Garrett JOHNSON USA 20.27
5 Christian CANTWELL USA 20.12
6 Dorian SCOTT JAM 18.28